


Change the Fate's Design

by Spannah339



Series: Sun and Moon AU [17]
Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon), Tangled (2010)
Genre: (small doses), Gen, Hurt Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider, Whump, eugene needs a nap, sun and moon au, the animals like apples apparently
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:41:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25664575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spannah339/pseuds/Spannah339
Summary: There is a PERSON in the CLOSET
Relationships: Cassandra & Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider & Rapunzel & Varian, Cassandra & Rapunzel (Disney: Tangled), Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider & Rapunzel, Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider/Rapunzel
Series: Sun and Moon AU [17]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1823434
Comments: 19
Kudos: 122





	Change the Fate's Design

**Author's Note:**

> FINALLY, IT IS HERE!
> 
> Between University readings, a convention (haha suck it America, New Zealand has cons right now) and this fic FIGHTING ME EVERY STEP OF THE WAY I finally got it to a readable standard! Please enjoy.

Rapunzel was  _ buzzing _ with excitement when they returned to the tower. Cass hadn’t seen her this excited since she had returned from her first foray out of the tower and younger sister had piled her with questions. This time, however, it was clear she was keeping her excitement hidden from Mother - or at least subdued. 

She was also very eager to get Mother to leave, hurriedly helping her pack, dancing around the tower with an air of barely contained wild glee about her. Cass didn’t question it, knew Rapunzel would tell her when she was ready, kept herself busy helping Mother prepare. 

As soon as Mother had vanished through the cave to the outside world, Rapunzel ran to Cass’ side, grabbed her shoulders and gently shook her with excitement. 

“Okay Raps! What’s going-” Cass began but was interrupted by Rapunzel. 

“You will  _ never _ guess what happened,” she said. 

“Another animal got stuck in the tower?” Cass asked. It made the most sense - Owl and Pascal weren’t the only creatures that had found themselves in the tower, they were just the ones that had stuck around. The two girls had helped a number of birds and climbing animals regain their strength to leave the tower. 

But Rapunzel was already shaking her head, shaking Cass in the process. She stepped back, spreading an arm out and gesturing to the wardrobe in the corner of the room, Pascal on her shoulder mirroring her. 

“There is a  _ man _ in the  _ closet _ .” 

Cass didn’t know how to react to that. She blinked, suddenly feeling like she needed to sit down and took a step back to lean against the table. 

“ _ What _ ?” 

That - that wasn’t  _ possible _ . No one knew about the tower - no one but the two of them and Mother. How could someone have found them? 

The fear followed a moment later.  _ Someone had found them _ . Was he here for Rapunzel’s hair? Were all their fears coming true? Mother had left - Mother wasn’t here to protect them. Cassandra was going to have to protect Rapunzel. 

She blinked, shaking her head and looking up at Rapunzel, who was excitedly watching for her reaction. 

“How?” Cass managed to get out, still trying to come to terms with the revelation. 

“He climbed in, through the window. I knocked him out with my frying pan!” She bounded forward, laying a hand on the table on either side of Cass and grinning up at her. “This could be our  _ chance _ , Cass!” 

“What?” 

Rapunzel bounded around the room, her hair flowing behind her. She gestured up to the painting on the wall, the one she had done that morning, of Rapunzel and Cassandra, seated together on a tree, watching the lights float together. 

“He can take us to see the lights! Mother’s going to be away for three days, that’s enough time to leave the tower, see the lights and come back!” 

“Raps-” Cass began, but her sister was too excited about the idea. She bounced back to Cass’ side, eyes flashing with excitement. 

“We can see the  _ lights _ , Cass!  _ Actually  _ see them!” 

The idea had some appeal, Cass had to admit. They had spent years slipping through the tower, padding silently on bare feet to push the window open and watch the lights float through the sky. Rapunzel had always wanted to see them in person, and Cass didn’t blame her. 

“Raps…” Cass began, something in her screaming that this was a bad idea. “You  _ do _ remember what happened yesterday, right?” 

It took the excitement out of Rapunzel for a moment, she sighed, spinning in place to face Cass, folding her arms and shrugging. 

“I know,” she said quietly. “But Mother will be away for  _ three days _ . Surely we can try?” 

Cassandra knew that if they were found out she would never leave the tower again. If they  _ did  _ manage to slip away and see the lights, to leave the tower  _ with Rapunzel _ and Mother found out? Well… Cass’ stolen moments of freedom would be just a memory. 

And yet… as much as everything in her was saying  _ no _ , was screaming that this was a  _ bad idea _ , Cass couldn’t bear to disappoint her sister. Rapunzel wanted this  _ so badly _ \- it was what she wanted most in the world. To see the lights in person. 

“Alright,” she said with a long sigh. “We’ll see if he’ll take us… whoever he is.” 

“Yes!” Rapunzel shouted, running forward and pulling Cass into a hug. “Oh, this is going to be the best birthday ever!” 

“Hold up,” Cass said, pushing herself off the table. “We don’t know anything about this guy you’ve locked in the closet - how do we know he’s not going to murder me and steal you for your hair?” 

“I checked his teeth,” Rapunzel said. “They’re not pointed.”

“Lots of people don’t have pointed teeth - that doesn’t mean they’re not dangerous.” 

A grin flashed across Rapunzel’s face, a brief glimpse of a side of her only Cass and Pascal got to see. 

“Alright then,” she said, flicking a strand of hair out. “We shall have to-” her hair wrapped around the handle of the frying pan that lay on the chair in front of the wardrobe, “interrogate him.” She caught the frying pan and spun it, and Cass grinned. 

“I like how you think.” 

~*~

The pain was back. 

To be fair, it hadn't really left - the chase through the forest and climb into the tower had just made his wound raw and  _ sore _ . 

Not to mention he now had a pounding headache and felt like he'd been hit by a horse. (Maybe he had, the last few hours were a bit of a blur. He was pretty sure there had been a horse involved though). 

Eugene woke suddenly, something cold and wet in his  _ ear _ . 

With a noise of protest, he shook his head, trying to make the uncomfortable feeling go away. It did, but the abrupt movement of his head caused the pounding to grow and he hid a wince. 

A lizard-frog-thing was sitting on his shoulder,  _ grinning  _ at him. Eugene glared at it. It glared back. 

He tried to reach up and bat it away but with a jerk realized he couldn’t lift his arms. He was tied - tied to a chair. 

Blinking back the pain that was fogging his mind, he took in his surroundings. He was in a room - a neat, comfortable room that looked well lived in, paintings covering almost every surface. 

He was sitting in a chair, tied down by what looked like  _ hair _ . Eugene filed that away low down on the priority list - under ‘get away’ and ‘find Varian’ and ‘don’t die.’ 

A low noise caught his attention and he looked up, making out a figure in the shadows across from him. The figure stepped forward - a young woman, short black hair, a simple green dress - dragging a chair behind her and setting it down, back towards him. She straddled it, leaning on the back, a kitchen knife in one hand, an apple in the other. 

“Uh, hey,” Eugene said, flashing his winning grin. She narrowed her eyes at him, digging the knife into the apple. Eugene knew she was doing it to be intimidating, and frankly, seeing as he was the one tied to a chair and she was the one with the knife, it was working. 

“Why are you here?” she asked, her voice sharp. Eugene paused in trying to follow the strands of hair leading away from his chair, up into the rafters of the room (was there someone else here?) 

(If so, that someone had  _ long _ hair)

(He still wasn’t convinced it  _ was  _ hair because how could it be?)

The woman in front of him stood, flicking a slice of apple into the shadows. The lizard-frog-thing on Eugene’s shoulder leapt down after it, which made the attempt at intimidation slightly less effective. 

She did still have a knife. 

“I said,” she said, holding said knife towards him. Eugene eyed it warily, unsure of her level of blade experience. “Why are you here?” 

“Honestly, I just want to leave,” Eugene said, flashing his teeth at her. She scowled, pacing around him. Eugene watched the tip of the knife until it disappeared behind his head.

“How did you find us?” the woman asked. Eugene shrugged, opening his mouth to answer but she didn’t give him a chance. “Does anyone else know about this place?” 

“I think we may have got off on the wrong foot,” Eugene said, twisting his head to look up at her. “The name’s Flynn Rider - and you?” 

Charm, charm and his looks - that’s how they had survived the last few years. (That and Varian’s surprisingly ability to set things on fire, turned out to be useful when you needed fire. Also lots of stealing. The stealing helped.) 

(Was Varian okay? For a moment, the thought cut through the slight haziness enveloping his brain, the worry sharp and clear.) 

“Cassandra,” she said in answer to his question. She moved around to the front again, standing a few paces away. “You didn’t answer my question. How did you find out about us?” 

(That was the second time she had said ‘us’ - did that mean there  _ was _ someone else here?)

(Did that mean he  _ was _ tied to a chair by hair?)

“I was running, I found a tower, I climbed up,” Eugene said, wondering what exactly she wanted him to say. 

(Where was Ruddiger?) 

(Ruddiger had been with him when he had started climbing, but the raccoon was nowhere to be seen). 

She leaned in close, still holding the knife, the apple in the other hand by her side. 

“You can’t have found us like that - who told yo-” 

She was cut off by a noise, a hiss from the rafters that sounded remarkably like a shortened version of her name. Eugene looked up, making out a shadow perched high above them. 

So there was another person here. 

And this was hair. 

He was going to go with  _ no _ for the moment, because honestly, that was easier to process and his brain wasn’t up for processing ‘super long hair that is currently tying me to a chair’ at the moment. 

The hiss from the rafters was enough for Eugene’s interrogator to step back, moving towards the wall. The shadow in the rafters bounded down and there was a muted discussion between the two figures. He only caught a few words - ‘lights’ and ‘mother’ and ‘birthday.’ 

Eugene let himself close his eyes and slump for a moment, while they weren’t watching. His side was sending spikes of pain through his whole body and his head was throbbing. Not to mention he had probably lost a lot of blood during the mad run and the climb up the tower. 

Probably explained why he was finding it hard to focus. 

Then the woman - Cassandra, he remembered foggily - turned and her companion stepped forward. 

She was younger, a hard light in her eyes that looked as though she were trying to be tough. It seemed almost out of place with the simple pink dress and bare feet she wore. She was holding a frying pan that looked suspiciously like what had caused his headache and -  _ wow yeah it was hair _ . 

(That was  _ a lot _ of hair.) 

(How did someone grow that much hair?) 

“Hi,” he said, a little hesitantly, for once at a loss for words. She stepped forward, holding the frying pan out in a threatening gesture. Eugene glanced between that and the knife the other girl was holding, suddenly unsure which he was more wary about. 

“Tomorrow night,” she said, her voice clear, hard, a  _ hint _ of her obvious inexperience slipping through, “the lights will appear.” 

“Lights?” Eugene asked, blinking, trying to make his foggy brain work.

The girl nodded, a grin flashing across her face as she moved across the room, shifting his chair a little dangerously as she did. 

(She looked good grinning. Eugene wanted to make her grin more). 

“The lights,” she said, scrambling onto the mantlepiece of the fireplace and pulling back the curtains to reveal a painting of what was clearly the two girls, seated on a tree, watching glowing yellow lights. “You’re going to take us to see them.” 

“You mean… stars?” he tried. It was clearly not the right thing. The blonde girl scowled, a flash of hurt and annoyance crossing her face.

“Those aren’t stars,” the other girl said from where she was leaning on a table to Eugene’s right. He glanced over at her and she nodded up to where the blonde girl was using her hair (and  _ that  _ was a cool skill, she used it like a built-in rope) to pull open a window in the ceiling, revealing a star map painted onto the wall and ceiling of the tower. 

“We’ve plotted stars,” she said, dropping to the ground and gesturing to the painting. “But those aren’t stars - they only ever appear once a year. On my birthday.” 

That was significant for something else, Eugene thought idly. He just wasn’t sure what. And didn’t have the brainpower to focus on it right now. 

But at least he had figured out what they were meaning. 

“The lanterns?” he asked, remembering the run through the city, the bustling streets of Corona as they prepared for the annual tradition. The girls exchanged a look, and the blonde’s eyes lit up. 

“Lanterns?” she asked. Eugene nodded. “They’re lanterns, Cass! I knew they weren’t stars!” She bounded to her friend (sister? They didn’t look alike. Then again, neither did he and Varian really) and grabbed her hands, eyes shining. 

(Why was she so excited about the lanterns? They were pretty, sure, but not kidnap-someone-and-threaten-bodily-harm pretty.) 

(He remembered standing in the streets of Corona, Varian’s hand in his as together they released the lantern he had managed to steal. Varian’s shining eyes as he watched the lantern fly, joining the rest as the soared over the buildings, carried on by the wind to who knows where.) 

“So you’ll come with us?” Cassandra asked, turning her head to look at him. 

“Hold up,” Eugene said, lifting his hands as much as he could against his bonds (the  _ hair _ ) to try and take a moment. “You want me to take you both to see the lanterns?” Both girls nodded and he shut his eyes for a second (oh no that was a mistake that second became  _ long _ ). “I have places to be,” he said, trying to seem casual. 

(He needed to find Varian. He didn’t have  _ time _ to chaperone two inexperienced girls to the kingdom. Not to mention half the guard was probably looking for him.) 

Both girls glanced at each other again, then the blonde one - he hadn’t caught her name, had she even said it? - stepped forward, frying pan held out. 

“You’re going to take us,” she said, her voice hard. (She was  _ surprisingly _ good at being intimidating, Eugene had to admit). “Or I-” 

She didn’t have time to finish the threat. A high shriek came from the window behind Eugene, and a blur of grey fur appeared from nowhere, settling on Eugene’s lap and screaming up at the blonde. She stumbled back with a start, letting out a small squeak of fear. 

“There you are,” Eugene muttered as Ruddiger settled into his lap, glaring at the girls. At the sound of his voice, Ruddiger glanced up and trilled softly, crawling up to settle around his shoulder. 

“Alright,” Eugene said, looking up at the two girls. “You leave me no choice.” He took a long moment, preparing himself, and unleashed the smoulder. 

Usually, it worked, if only to distract while Varian snuck around back. (Either that or worked to send Varian into fits of giggles until he was curled on the ground unable to breathe.) This time, however, the girls seemed unphased, exchanging a glance. The black-haired girl (Cassandra, right?) even buried her face in a hand. 

Eugene held it for a moment, hoping his luck would change. Both of his cruel, cruel captors just stared at him. 

With a long sigh, he dropped the smoulder. 

“This has kinda been an off day for me, that doesn’t usually happen,” he muttered. (Off day - more like off  _ week _ , nothing had gone right since the moment he and Varian had run until the Stabbingtons.) 

Cassandra pushed herself away from the table, crossing her arms and stepping forward. 

“Look, Rider, this is getting old,” she said, gesturing with one hand. It happened to be the hand still holding the apple, a fact that was not lost on Ruddiger. Instantly, he let out a loud chatter, launching himself off Eugene’s shoulder towards the fruit and the woman holding it. 

The leap had enough force to unbalance the chair and for a moment, Eugene felt himself falling back. He flinched, trying to raise his hands, to stop his backways trajectory, only to be stopped by the blonde’s hand on the back of the chair. 

“Ah, ha, thanks,” he said, looking up at her. “You know, I never got your name.” 

“Rapunzel,” she said. Eugene blinked, the name almost immediately becoming lost in the fog of his brain. He didn’t have time to focus on it as she tipped the chair forward, pulling him in close and taking the weight of the chair off the back legs. “Take us to see the lights,” she said and there was a hard light in her eyes. 

Maybe going with them wouldn’t be so bad - at least for a short time. He could get untied, and out of the tower, and then leave them to their own devices and continue on his way. 

Besides, part of him wanted to see more of them. To see them smile more. 

(If he was being honest he wanted to see the  _ blonde  _ woman smile more. Something about her smile made him want to smile). 

“Alright, fine,” he said, sighing deeply. “I’ll take you to see the lanterns. 

“Really!” Rapunzel cried, leaning back and clapping her hands together in excitement. Unfortunately, this meant she let go of the chair and Eugene tipped forward in a heart-stopping moment. 

He may have passed out for a second. Maybe more, because after the blinding  _ pain  _ of being dropped on his face and his side flaring up again, he was aware of both girls standing over him. 

“I think you hit him too hard, Raps,” Cassandra commented. She no longer held the apple, having sacrificed it to a content Ruddiger who sat on the table. Eugene groaned, trying to push himself up so he wasn’t lying on his face. It was surprisingly difficult with an entire chair strapped to his back. 

The blonde rushed forward, helping him to right the chair and grinning slightly sheepishly. 

“Sorry,” she muttered. She began unwinding the hair, and Eugene glanced down to watch for a moment. 

“I think I got blood on your hair,” he muttered, a slightly guilty pang rushing through him. He  _ knew _ how hard it was to get blood out of his hair. 

“You’re bleeding?” she asked, moving back to stand in front of him, a bundle of hair in her arms. Eugene realized that he was no longer tied down, but he really wasn’t sure he would have the strength to stand. He glanced down at his side, making out the far larger bloodstain across his shirt, the soaked bandages visible underneath. 

“A little,” he said softly. He really wanted to close his eyes and sleep for a bit. Maybe that would be a good idea before they left. A nap. A nap sounded nice. 

“Oh.” Rapunzel glanced back at Cassandra, and a silent conversation passed between them, resulting in Cassandra letting out a long sigh and nodding slowly. “I can help with that! Stay still.” 

She moved around him, carefully wrapping her hair back around him. For a moment, Eugene wondered if she was tying him back down, but then she moved back, settling on a stool Cassandra had produced seemingly from nowhere. 

He watched with some trepidation as she settled onto the stool and closed her eyes, holding her hair on her lap and began to  _ sing _ . 

_ Flower gleam and glow _

_ Let your power shine _

Her hair began to  _ glow _ , light rushing up from her roots and slowly spreading through all her hair. Eugene watched with sharp bewilderment as the glowing drew nearer to him. 

(It seemed familiar, in a way.) 

_ Make the clock reverse _

_ Bring back what once was mine _

The song seemed familiar. A distant echo, a younger voice, choked with emotion, gasping out words, a tune. Eugene blinked, trying to piece everything together. 

_ Heal what has been hurt  _

_ Change the fate’s design  _

The glowing reached the part of her hair that was wrapped around his waist and Eugene felt a strange tingling in his side, an almost uncomfortable aching. 

_ Save what has been lost  _

_ Bring back what once was mine _

An image flashed into his mind - a book, a book with the sun and moon dancing together across the pages, chasing each other, always together. The sun and moon, separated, standing on either side of the page, apart but needing to be together. 

_ What once was mine.  _

And suddenly, it all clicked. 

Soft blue hair that glowed as Varian curled up against him. 

A small voice, whispering about someone out there, waiting for him. 

A song, an aching  _ pleading _ of a younger brother as he tried to make fate work for him. 

Eugene looked up, mind reeling, locking eyes with the woman sitting across from him, his mind clearer than it had been all day. 

“You’re the sun,” he said softly. 


End file.
